Walt Disney World A History in Postcards Chapter 5 EPCOT Center Page 2: ...Then We Can Do it.

The only constant is change As I mentioned on the previous page, the original plan for EPCOT was a "City of the Future", which would
be constantly changing to showcase new technologies that would change our lives. Even as a theme park there
has been an effort made to keep the changes coming. I remember reading that the agreements with the sponsors
of the Future World pavilions called for the pavilions to be changed every ten years.
Some of the changes have been minor. I'm thinking Spaceship Earth has probably seen the smallest changes of any
opening day pavilion (Although Horizons and The Living Seas, were pictured in pre-opening art their
pavilions did not open in 1982).
Many of the first attractions of Future World have been replaced .
These changes to EPCOT started before the park even opened in fact. Many of you probably have
seen concept art for the various ideas for EPCOT, from the glowing city of Tomorrow pictured in "The story of WDW"
, to the various versions of it shown in the book "
Walt Disney Imagineering: A Behind the Dreams Look at Making the Magic Real ". But
, you might not realize that these changes continued enough even after the first pre-opening
merchandise had been issued, so that there are two versions of the (numerically) first pre-opening card.
The biggest most obvious difference between the two cards is probably the lack of a dome over the Living Seas
pavilion in the presumably later version, but the changes are many besides that from details like the trees
in front of the tram drop off area, some changes to the fountain in the communicore courtyard,
all the way back to the horizon. At the same time though these visions of EPCOT Center are so similar and seem to
be painted from the exact same angle so at first looking through your cards this might not jump out at you.
The probable reason for that exactitude in some of the details
can be found in the aforementioned Imagineering book, both artists conceptions
of the park were made from the model of the park.